Board Games

[Stuart]

Anyone got any recommendations for board games?

We tend to play Settlers of Catan quite a bit, but I'm always on the lookout for other games we can play as a family. Wish I'd had a bit more time at the UK Games Expo on Sunday to look at a few.

Fantasy Flight Games seem to have one or two intesting titles, and Cadwallon: City of Thieves sounds like it has potential.

[Dark Wolf]

Anyone got any recommendations for board games?

We tend to play Settlers of Catan quite a bit, but I'm always on the lookout for other games we can play as a family. Wish I'd had a bit more time at the UK Games Expo on Sunday to look at a few.

Fantasy Flight Games seem to have one or two intesting titles, and Cadwallon: City of Thieves sounds like it has potential.

maybe risk thats quite good.

[jaqenhgar]

Settlers of Catan is great. Others I have come across are Puerto Rico (great game, 3 to 5 players), Agricola (only played online, check out http://www.boiteajeux.net/ yuo will need to register but can play up to 40 games at a time for free - turn based, not real time so you log on and take your moves, then log off) and dominion (played at a friends house - pretty good).

Slightly simpler games that I have and play with the kids are Carcasonne (a tile-laying game), Ticket to ride (build train routes - my 5 year old can play this fine) and Memoir '44 (WWII, a sort of intro to tabletop war games).

[Dark Wolf]

lego minotaurus is good also for us kids.

[Etched Oracle]

For the family I'd recommend;

King Of Tokyo - Quick game, taking only 30mins or so to do a complete game. Rules are very simple & easy to learn (The rules manual is only a 2 sided pamphlet and is full of colourful images and big writing), plus it's designed by Richard Garfield.

Lego Board Games - All of these are good fun, with only a handful being sub-par. Racer 3000, Star Wars Battle Of Hoth and Minotaurus are my favorites so far.

Escape From Atlantis - An old board game but for the under 10's its good fun (And those of us who are a bit older might just enjoy it too ), with the newer version having plastic components. Again the rules are straight forward.

I'll think of some more soon to suggest. Might take a look at City Of Thieves as they have a copy at TW and it looks very Talisman-esque in both design and production though I've no idea about the rules.

[Stuart]

I'll think of some more soon to suggest. Might take a look at City Of Thieves as they have a copy at TW and it looks very Talisman-esque in both design and production though I've no idea about the rules.

I like the look of that one too.

[Sincilbanks]

Caracassone is a good family game

[jimbobabob]

Settlers I can recommend but you don't need me to tell you that apart from that the other Stuart has a game called small worlds http://www.daysofwonder.com/smallworld/en/ which we've played a few times and it's really fun.

It's suitable for a family game since the rules are simple enough for none wargame minded people unlike the other board games i play. Players pick a random race and special ability and fight over territory but if it all goes wrong or even too well you pick a new race and power and come into play from a different direction with the choice of when to make that change bringing another level strategy into the game.

[jaqenhgar]

Settlers I can recommend but you don't need me to tell you that apart from that the other Stuart has a game called small worlds http://www.daysofwonder.com/smallworld/en/ which we've played a few times and it's really fun.

yeah i've played that and enjoyed it. i might have to check out the LEGO minotaurus for the kids for Christmas....

[Gareth]

I would keep an eye out for a game released at Essen, called Space Cadets.

I was introduced to this game by the director of Stronghold games, and the primary writer whilst at GenCon. When I say primary writer, his assistants in producing this game were his two young boys, and it certainly sounded to have a family friendly nature to it.

As a co-operative game, it would get young 'uns working together. The general premise is that you are on the bridge of a non-speciffic science research space vessel (to get away with any image infringement issues, Paramount might bring,) and each player has their own tasks (such as picking out the shape item out of a bag,) in order to complete missions.

Its something I fancy picking up once the niece gets a little older.